Caroline Flint: I am today launching a document entitled "Facing the Housing Challenge: Action today, innovation for tomorrow". A copy will be placed in the Library of the House.
	We know that the vast majority of people aspire to home ownership. This is more than an economic calculation—it represents their hopes and dreams for their families. Across Government, we value and support these aspirations. We are absolutely committed to making sure that everyone can find the housing that meets their needs.
	So this time last year, we published a housing Green Paper, setting out our plans for the biggest housebuilding programme in decades. It set out our long-term plans to meet the housing needs of our aging, growing population, with a major increase in supply to address increasing demand, helping those families and first time buyers priced out of the property market.
	More recently, however, the international housing market has experienced significant challenges as a result of turbulence in the global financial markets. People are finding it harder to get a mortgage; we have seen falls in house prices and house builders are now experiencing difficult business conditions after years of extremely favourable circumstances.
	But the long-term demographic trends remain the same. And without action now, we risk frustrating many more potential first time buyers and growing families in the future. Our target to achieve a rate of 240,000 new homes per year by 2016 was set to address these long-term trends and we remain absolutely committed to increasing supply to this level to respond to this long-term demand.
	The signs are that current market conditions will lead to a fall in housing completions this year, which makes our targets of two million homes by 2016 and three million by 2020 challenging, particularly if the current conditions are protracted.
	However, the development industry has shown before it is capable of responding and delivering substantial increases in new homes over a short period—from around 130,000 net additions in 2001-02 to approaching 200,000 in 2006-07. We therefore remain committed to our overall target of three million homes by 2020 as the right long-term goal, whilst recognising the scale of the challenge this entails.
	We need now to retain our focus on stimulating market conditions, seeking new ways to deliver the housing this country urgently needs and ensuring there is a planning framework that will support a rapid market recovery.
	So we are publishing this document to set out our next steps in this housing delivery programme, helping to strike the right balance in responding to both current conditions and long-term challenges.
	We invest around £6 billion per year in housing and regeneration programmes. Our priorities for these resources are to:
	provide greater help for first time buyers;
	help existing homeowners facing difficulties due to problems in the international financial markets;
	keep housing supply, particularly affordable housing supply, as high as possible during the current difficulties, in order to keep on track to meet our targets; and
	maintain capacity and create the right conditions for recovery and longer-term growth.
	We are therefore setting out a package of measures in this document to achieve these objectives. These include:
	The pilot of a 'Rent to HomeBuy' scheme, led by the Housing Corporation, which will aim to help prospective buyers who are unable to take advantage of current shared ownership schemes, perhaps because they cannot find a suitable mortgage. The scheme will enable eligible households to rent a new build property, at less than market rates, for a pre-specified period, with the option to buy a share in the home at the end of that time.
	Plans from the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, Newcastle city council, Nottingham city council and Manchester city council to launch the first pilot local housing companies. These have the potential to deliver up to 10,000 new homes. They represent a new model of working which combines local authority land assets with private sector investment, enhancing delivery of new homes and communities. This represents just one of the ways that local authorities will play a central role in delivering the housing the country needs.
	Confirmation that more funding, beyond the £200 million already allocated from the affordable housing budget, could be made available to purchase high quality unsold stock, in the right locations, for the right price. This would help deliver our demanding affordable housing targets, while also supporting house builders.
	Proposals to support delivery of up to 75,000 homes in 20 more towns and cities in the next stage of the growth points programme. These will combine increased housing with new jobs, town centre regeneration, and higher design and environmental standards. We will invest £100 million in helping these areas to realise their ambitions for sustainable growth. Further details of the new growth points can be found in the "Partnership for Growth" document, being published today, which will be placed in the Library of the House.
	Provisional allocations of the £510 million housing and planning delivery grant, to support those local authorities who are taking action to meet housing needs, and reward those who are preparing plans and identifying land supply for delivery. We will keep this under review for the next three years to ensure that it remains an effective incentive for delivery. We will also develop proposals for specific incentives to deliver affordable housing from 2010-11. Further details are set out in "Housing and Planning Delivery Grant: Allocation mechanism and summary of consultation responses". A copy will be placed in the Library of the House, along with the schedule of provisional allocations.
	A commitment to working with our stakeholders to explore the viability and practicality of mortgage rescue schemes, building on the example of local authorities and housing associations which already offer such schemes.
	New consumer advice and information for those concerned about mortgage repayments from the National Housing Advice Service.
	The appointment of Baroness Margaret Ford to work for Partnerships UK in identifying and releasing surplus public sector land for housing delivery, particularly land owned by central Government Departments and their agencies.
	Alongside this document, I am publishing an open letter which sets out our response to the Callcutt review of housing supply. We have accepted a number of the recommendations from John Calcutt. These include the creation of a zero-carbon unit to co-ordinate and guide the programme of work to deliver zero-carbon housing from 2016, and further work to develop skills within the house building industry.
	I am also publishing a summary of the Pomeroy review of private sector shared equity. Brian Pomeroy was tasked with examining how the private sector shared equity market is developing and what the private and public sector might do to facilitate its development. The review found that there were no major institutional barriers which were preventing a shared equity market from developing and there remains an interest in developing suitable shared equity products when conditions improve. The full text has not been published as it contains confidential information, but the summary sets out the main findings. A copy has been placed in the Library of the House.
	Finally, effective regional and local planning for the medium and long term is essential if we are to reach the target of 240,000 homes per year from 2016. We will now work with regional partners on a flexible basis to agree the work programmes and timetables with each regional planning body. The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit recently provided the Government with advice on the numbers it felt should be considered in regional strategy reviews. I am today writing to all regional assembly chairs, the North West regional leaders' forum, and the Mayor of London with guidance on how we expect the advice from the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit to be used.
	The document "Facing the Housing Challenge: Action today, innovation for tomorrow" outlines a broad response to the impact of the disruption in international financial markets on the housing market. This package will both help people facing difficulties today, and lay the foundations to help meet the long-term housing needs of the country.
	However, it is not the end of the process. We will review progress and reflect on new approaches, incentives or support mechanisms which will both help address the current difficulties and deliver our longer-term programme. We will take a proactive approach wherever it is clear that we can do more to support consumers and industry.

Jacqui Smith: The House will wish to know that Sir Ian Magee's independent review of criminality information is being published today.
	I am grateful to Sir Ian for his work on the review. He has presented us with a substantial report with wide ranging implications for all organisations which collect information that may be relevant to the prevention, investigation, prosecution, or penalising of crime. This is a complex area and there are no quick fixes. Sir Ian's package of recommendations will require sustained attention. I will therefore be consulting widely and I intend to publish a full, Government-wide action plan in the autumn.
	The Government are keen to develop work quickly across a range of Sir Ian's recommendations and my Department will continue to take the lead in driving this work forward as part of our primary focus on public protection. We intend now to proceed with the following:
	First, we will continue with the complex and difficult work which the Home Office has been leading to enhance the information we have about the criminal histories of foreign nationals and UK citizens who have spent time abroad. We will do this both by making better use of existing information channels and by leading a process of improvement within Europe and more widely. This work will significantly improve the way we protect the public by ensuring relevant overseas data are available to inform the criminal justice process and key systems such as those used to vet and bar people seeking to work with children and vulnerable adults.
	Secondly, we will build on, extend and strengthen existing streams of work, such as the programme the Home Office has led to implement the recommendations from the Bichard inquiry, to develop a clear strategic direction for the improvement of criminality information management across what Sir Ian is calling the public protection network. That will provide the framework for positive changes to sharing of criminality information, training for leaders and front line staff and the ways in which we identify and respond to information-related risks.
	Thirdly, the Home Office will be involved in an in-depth review of the way technology supports information flows between public protection organisations, drawing on the expertise of other Departments and key organisations such as the National Policing Improvement Agency. A huge programme of work is already underway to strengthen information handling within policing and the broader criminal justice system, but we recognise the need to join up even more and sharpen the focus on public protection. There is also significant potential to save taxpayers' money through the re-use of existing technology and through reducing the amount of duplicate data held by various organisations.
	Fourthly, Sir Ian has conducted some detailed work in specific areas of public protection and made recommendations that directly affect front line operations. We intend to implement these recommendations. Their focus is improving the way information is captured, stored and accessed, shared, analysed and acted upon, and managed. Full implementation of these recommendations will improve the quality of criminality information available to front line staff who are making very difficult decisions on a day-to-day basis. In all these areas we will be building on the foundations of positive work which is already underway between the Home Office and its partners within the public protection network. For example, I anticipate we can:
	work with the UK Border Agency to improve the use of criminality information to assist in deporting people in a timely and fair way; and
	improve the effectiveness of our vetting and barring processes so as to protect children and the vulnerable from those unsuitable to work with them.
	Working together to protect the public is the fundamental statement of purpose for the Home Office. I want that to be the guiding principle for our policies to cut crime, provide effective policing, secure our borders and protect personal identity. The effective use and sharing of criminality information is critical to the successful delivery of those policies and Sir Ian's report provides us with the framework within which that can be achieved.
	Copies of the documents have been placed in the Vote Office and the Libraries of both Houses.

John Denham: Today, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and I publish the draft Apprenticeships Bill. In January 2008, "World Class Apprenticeships" set out plans for achieving our aspirations for the apprenticeships programme. This draft Bill sets out the legislative framework needed to underpin our strategy to increase the number of apprenticeship places and strengthen apprenticeships in England.
	Our ambition is that apprenticeships are seen as a key route to the best jobs, the best careers and the best chance to get on in life. Apprenticeships are at the heart of our strategy to raise the age of participation in education or training for all young people, with high quality vocational training clearly recognised as a mainstream route for young people. Apprenticeships will also help build a workforce fit for the future by providing better and more relevant skills to enable us to compete in the global economy.
	Since 1997, we have substantially increased investment in apprenticeships, and the number of starts has increased from 65,000 in 1996-97 to 180,000 in 2006-07. This increase has been accompanied by a steady improvement in the number of people completing apprenticeships, from 40,000 in 2001-02 to 112,000 in 2006-07.
	We want to build on this success. We want a significant increase in the number of places so that by 2013 we can ensure that there is an apprenticeship place for every suitably qualified young person who wants one. We want to strengthen the programme so that we can ensure that all apprenticeships are of a uniformly high quality.
	Following pre-legislative scrutiny and the consultation we are launching today, the provisions in the draft Bill will form part of the Education and Skills Bill we will introduce in the next session.
	Copies of the draft Apprenticeships Bill will be made available in the Vote office and Printed Paper Office.